when it's raining...

when it's raining we're happy to have a warm, dry studio.
we wake and talk and muse and are amused...the world around us may
seep in, drip in, creep in.
and MAY it all seep in, sink in, waft, wisp, wander in...
all of it is welcome to reside among the
ancient pins; nestling a bit of a lover's hair,
earrings; painted like a taxi-cab,
worn out wedding sleeves and ties with
no neck to cradle....
we adore you. we adorn you.
ahhh yeah.

here we have a production line of one-of-a-kinds...

a few pics from the Global Green event

http://globalgreen.org/press/128

BlankVerse at Global Green

some sweet and unexpected fans here....

please see our write up on:

http://www.whiteapricot.com/

Zem posing, Veronica singing and two young ladies modeling BlankVerse Jewelry at the Global Green, Gorgeous and Green Trunk Show at Torso Vintage

the thistle in the kiss...

as a fourteen year old; do you remember stealing a pair of fish-nets from your mom? do you distinctly remember that you snagged them on purpose? maybe you did not yet sense the implications….

you were very fortunate. you engaged with imperfection daily. you were allowed to embrace the run, tear, stain…you wore old slips and army boots, you created a cult of anti-beauty and awkward juxtapositions….fully knowing that it was all, essentially beautiful. you were sincere in your love of the crooked, the unaligned and unsanctioned…. of ripped nylons and rusted chains….and their aesthetic qualities; highlighted by unfamiliar contexts.

you earned the right to look imperfection squarely in the eye and adore it’s intrinsic nature as an essential quality of high art.
………

the bits and pieces of broken jewelry that have come to our studio were all, once, purchased or given, for the love of the object itself…. here we have something much more tangible than nostalgia….we have history. we have beauty. if the missing stones, patinas of age, lingering scents and unmatched pairs do not qualify as material in their own right; they may re-emerge within the structure of a new context; as beautiful and whole.

"versace tie"

glovlette w/tag....

at the flea market

everything’s a dollar in this box…

this morning, I am sorting through piles of the tangled, the cast-offs, the broken, and the tarnished.. There’s always something that happens to me… in these places. the piles themselves are nuanced by chance …today, an old wig, broken china, and one red shoe spilling out of a patinaed suitcase tell a story ….a beauty spelled out in momentary piles….we cannot help it…we are sympathetic and animistic…we love the tragedy of history. we love to put together the pieces which are only narrative by association. we are gifted with the ability to create new contexts for objects ( and people?) thrown together by chance.

hmmm. gloves.

we were having trouble sourcing gloves which was impetus for sending out an
email requesting donations or sales from friends and family (everyone go check your
closets and chest of drawers...).

honestly, the mail carrier must have thought i was a very popular birthday girl
because for days on end packages of gloves were appearing on the door step. incredible!

truly, it is no small thing to sit in the lap of love, support and very practical
donations! my mom is champion for contacting numerous friends who found all
sorts of goodies to ship on over... there is something magical about that ripple effect.
getting materials from people who don't even know me or laamie personally is positively thrilling and heartening. it is good to be here now.

it is as though the community at large has opened it's arms and welcomed laamie and me
into bounty and has inspired new relationship with creativity.

thank you all so much for a continued interest and support....
A special thanks to our glove and bauble angels:

diane, sharon, miriam, sharri (aka aunt sharroll), suzy (mom farrar), janie (mom), mary jean, alice, pat, henrriette, sue.... (this is dangerous because i'm probably
forgetting someone)...

laam, thanks for keeping up the blog.

Laamie's brief...

Blank Verse Jewelry was conceived just a few months ago. In a beautiful storm of sequins and poked fingers and dear friends and business forms; we arrived at this wonderous moment in our company's history.

And, here we are, after a week of running from city hall to the planning department, bank, post office, fed-ex, another bank, and then, running in circles within the dizzy-ing corporate world of Anthropologie....we can breathe for a moment before getting back to work to fill our order and get ourselves ready for a trunk show next week...

Our brief history is magnificent and sweet. I am still in awe. A friend recommended that we document our experience of the the last few months, and...I believe that there is a good story or two in here...

Without expecting all of our busy friends to read too many details, I wanted to share a few experiences and I hope that Jane will share her's too....

April/May - Jane and I gathered some of our grandmother's things and sat down at a bench that Matt Farrar made for us in their garage. Jane and I made some really fun pieces and planned to continue making stuff to wear. We loved to hear each other's ideas for future projects including a line of conceptual jewelry. We had no expectations. We had no other wishes than to be able to support our habit of making stuff together. We shared some of our pieces with friends at a party in May. Our dear friend, and champion believer, Deirdre Sholbrook, was so excited by our new pieces that she didn't flinch when she nearly broke her toe in my back yard on a stump that evening.( I'm so sorry about that! )
June/July - We took some time off in the summer...meanwhile, Deirdre showed our work to her business partner, Heidi Pettit, who then took what we had to Casey Larkin, of Mr. Larkin.....
Casey Larkin was excited and special ordered 12 pieces to use with her 2010 line on the runway at NY fashion week!
August/September - Jane and I got the order for Casey's show, and kept working...not knowing what would come next, but thrilled beyond belief that this amazing, and successful designer ( Casey Larkin ) would include our work in her runway show.
As a kind gesture, Casey then took our work to DNA with her, where Anthropologie's buyer discovered our deconstructed gloves ( Jane's exclusive design) that have become one of our signature looks.
September/October - We have now put aside all of our other pursuits in favor of filling our latest order for Anthropologie's Manhattan store, getting ready to participate in a trunk show at Eco-Citizen and looking forward to a trunk show at Vie Bungalow at the end of the month
...phew....

Along the way we:
-learned to source in a variety of unconventional ways
-relied on the help and support of many friends and family members
-did a lot of research and development with not a lot of sleep in between
-got a website in a day ( with huge thanks to Matt Farrar!)..business cards, labels, stamps....( thanks again, Matt!!)
-got a zoning permit, business license, fictitious name published, got a vendor #, wrote a partnership agreement,
got a business bank account, reviewed a 50 page contract with Anthropologie, and spent countless hours at work focusing and lovingly making our beautiful jewelry.....

I can hardly imagine that this experience could be any richer or more dear or more perfect. I'm sure I'm forgetting to tell the whole story, so I hope you will tune in to hear Jane's half...

I am so grateful to be able to go through this with you, Jane, you are the perfect partner!

how do we work like this?.. we LOVE it!

Beautiful Missy shows us the versatility of a few pieces....

that's us... wearing our best...

for your viewing pleasure

matt has built us a beautiful web site....
you're the man, mr.! (we've posted the
address to the right)

thanks for checking out our blog, for
all the generous feedback, and for stopping
into the studio with gifts and loads of love and
encouragement.

A few words about Mr.

Mr. Larkin by Casey Larkin is a socially responsible and environmentally focused collection inspired by the magic, mechanics and architecture of the vintage circus. The entire collection uses organic, sustainable or renewable textiles and practices, everything from organic cotton voiles and jersey; peace silk crepes dyed with blackberries, olives, fig leaves, acorn and sour grass; bamboo muslin dyed with madder plants; and tulle made from 100% Ingeo. All dyes are made from plants and vegetables in collaboration with natural artisan dyer, Sasha Duerr. The trims and hardware on the designs are from recycled vintage findings from all decades such as metal paillettes from the 1930s, rhinestones from the 1940’s, sterling silver ribbons from the 1920s and porcelain buttons from Paris (pre WW2). One percent of Mr. Larkin's profits are donated to "Seeds to Sew", a project of the Permacouture Institute, which builds alliances with seed saving programs to tag alternative fiber and dye producing plants, increasing biodiversity for both culture and nature.

Boast

not meaning to be gauche with talk of selves...
but it's just so exciting!!! our work is going to
fashion week nyc and will be on the runway on
the 16 with the lovely Mr. Larkin line.

so, we are bustling about the hot little studio
and not eating enough ice or anything else for
that matter. the matts are angels we couldn't do
without for all the love and support. and sam
keeps asking for a walk...so off i go.
feet on the ground.

thanks to all for the overwhelming love, support and
faith in us and our work. we are walking
in sparkly light.

... from the age of wonder

marjorie and jane discuss aesthetics and love....

a few words about our new line.....

our newest pieces really evolved very organically...we take turns working on each piece. we cull our
materials from family and friends, we cycle beautiful pieces into new relationships with different eras,
colors, textures, and stories
when we are unsure how to finish or elaborate further, sometimes we
read out loud to each other as we work.... pablo neruda, smog lyrics, oscar wilde, m.f.k. fisher, or excerpts from the scrabble dictionary... eclectic and structural, vibrant and irreverent, passionate and poised....
it's amazing how the power of words accentuates the experience of creating. we see each piece as a story
in essence...as if all of the vintage lace ( my great-grandmother's ) and chains, cameos, beads,
ribbon, leather scraps, broaches; of a more recent, previous ownership; become at once new and
honored for their own past.
it is our endeavor to design not only aesthetically, but also conceptually.
i see our newest pieces as a visual relationship...like that "perfect dinner party" to which you could invite dostoyevski and emily post, tom waits, and mozart, johnny rotten and bridget bardot....
and there you have it.....

two friends, two needles, and a heap of goods. sparkle, leather, edge and lace. rock and roll.
an individual and a collective... a sweet meeting of unlikely textures and making magic.

sharp arrest or easy sunday afternoons.
there's a moment that hangs around your neck or a memory on your wrist. a story told,
a heart broken, an effortless kiss, or the bubble of laughter. there's something more and nothing less than utter delight.

...from our portfolio....